1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to bioabsorbable sutures. More particularly, the present disclosure is directed to bioabsorbable sutures having relatively short degradation times and methods for making such sutures by controlled exposure of a suture derived from bioabsorbable materials to humidity at elevated temperatures.
2. Background of Related Art
Bioabsorbable surgical devices, e.g., sutures, such as those made from glycolide and/or lactide and related compounds are known. For example, DEXON sutures (Davis & Geck, Danbury, Conn.) are absorbable multifilament sutures made from glycolide homopolymer, VICRYL sutures (Ethicon, Inc., Sommerville, N.J.) are made from a copolymer of glycolide and lactide, and POLYSORB sutures (United States Surgical, Norwalk, Conn.) are also made from a copolymer of glycolide and lactide. These sutures generally retain at least about 20 percent of their original strength at three weeks after implantation, with the suture mass being essentially absorbed in the body within about 60 to 90 days post implantation. In certain applications, however, it is desirable to employ sutures which lose their strength and/or mass in shorter periods of time.
Attempts to modify the physical properties of bioabsorbable materials have included adding fillers, irradiating and exposing the materials to boiling, soaking or steam treatment. See, U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,466. However, U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,622 discloses that exposure of dry polyglycolic acid sutures to small amounts of moisture for very short periods of time is sufficient to cause serious deterioration in the package and in vivo strength of the sutures on long term standing, and therefore discloses that the sutures must be kept and packaged “bone dry”.
It would be advantageous to provide a bioabsorbable surgical article, e.g., a bioabsorbable synthetic multifilament surgical article, which exhibits and maintains desired tensile properties, handling characteristics and strength retention for relatively short periods of time while maintaining adequate stability within a package to provide acceptable shelf-life.